CHAPTER IX.
THE UNDERSCORED LINES.
Some one was expected at the castle: a letter had been received from Ödön—this time written by his own hand and mailed at Lemberg—announcing in advance his early arrival. In the afternoon the baroness ordered her carriage and drove to meet her son. Halting at Szunyogos, she there awaited his coming. Ödön arrived promptly at the appointed time. The meeting of mother and son was tenderly affectionate.
"How you frightened me with your accident!" exclaimed the baroness, half in reproach.
"That is now happily over," rejoined Ödön, kissing his mother. "We have each other once more."
Entering his mother's carriage, the young man proceeded without delay, in her company, to Nemesdomb. After he had exchanged his travel-stained clothes for fresh garments, his mother led him into his father's apartments.
"These rooms," said she, "will now be for your use. You must receive the people that come to visit us. Henceforth you are master here and will exercise that supervision over the estate which it so sadly needs. Our house enjoys great repute in the county, and you must decide what position you will take, what circle of acquaintances you will gather around you, and what part you will play as leader. Have you taken thought that as eldest son you will be called upon to assume the lord-lieutenancy of the county, which has so long been in our family?"
"An administrator, as I am told, now sits in the lord lieutenant's chair," observed the son.
"Yes," replied the mother, "because the actual lord lieutenant was an invalid and unable to preside in person over the county assemblies. But you are well and strong, and it rests with you to see that no one usurps your rights."
Ödön looked into his mother's eyes. "Mother," said he, "it was not for this reason that you called me home."